202 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



in these extensive wilds. You will admire the Horned 

 Screamer as a stately and majestic bird : he is almost the 

 size of the turkey cock ; on his head is a long slender horn, 

 and each wing is armed with a strong, sharp, triangular 

 spur, an inch long. 



Sometimes you will fall in with flocks of two or three 

 hundred Waracahas, or Trumpeters, called so from the 

 singular noise they produce. Their breast is adorned with 

 beautiful changing blue and purple feathers ; their head 

 and neck like velvet ; their wings and back grey, and belly 

 black. They run with great swiftness, and when domesti- 

 cated, attend their master in his walks with as much ap- 

 parent affection as his dog. They have no spurs, but still, 

 such is their high spirit and activity, that they browbeat 

 every dunghill fowl in the yard, and force the Guinea birds, 

 dogs, and turkeys to own their superiority. 



If, kind and gentle reader, thou shouldst ever visit these 

 regions with an intention to examine their productions, 

 perhaps the few observations contained in these Wander- 

 ings may be of service to thee; excuse their brevity: 

 more could have been written, and each bird more par- 

 ticularly described, but it would have been pressing too 

 hard upon thy time and patience. 



Soon after arriving in these parts, thou wilt find that the 

 species here enumerated are only as a handful from a well- 

 stored granary. Nothing has been said of the Eagles, the 

 Falcons, the Hawks, and Shrikes ; nothing of th-e different 

 species of Vultures, the king of which is very handsome, 

 and seems to be the only bird which claims regal honours 

 from a surrounding tribe. It is a fact beyond all dispute, 

 that when the scent of carrion has drawn together hundreds 

 of the common vultures, they all retire from the carcass as 

 soon as the King of the Vultures makes his appearance. 

 When his majesty has satisfied the cravings of his royal 



